Interior Department clarifies that it remains behind...

2of6FILE- In this Feb. 23, 2016 file photo, people try to catch fish along the Sacramento River in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, near Courtland, Calif.Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

3of6The north end of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Dela in 2013.Photo: Randall Benton, TNS

4of6FILE - In this July 25, 2012, file photo, California Gov. Jerry Brown waits for the start of a news conference to announce plans to build a giant twin tunnel system to move water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmland and cities, in Sacramento, Calif. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Bewildering both opponents and supporters of Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to build two giant water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the federal Interior Department said late Wednesday that the Trump administration had not pulled its support for the project as reported earlier.

The department’s deputy communication’s director, Russell Newell, had told the Associated Press earlier in the day that the administration “chose not to move forward” with the project. The news had tunnel opponents celebrating the apparent death blow to Brown’s plan, which seeks to rectify California’s chronic water shortages through a massive plumbing project that would take water from the state’s northern rivers and funnel it to the dry farms and cities in the south.

The tunnels, now going under the name California Water Fix, are intended to replace a system that pulls the water south through the delta using giant pumps that harm fish.

Later in the day, Newell reversed course, telling The Chronicle in an email that the administration “will continue to work with the state and stakeholders as the project is further developed.”

“While the Department of Interior shares the goals of the state of California to deliver water with more certainty, eliminating risks to the California water supply, and improving the environment, at this time, the department under the current state proposal does not expect to participate in the construction or funding of the CA Water Fix,” the statement said.

Lisa Lien-Mager, a spokewoman for the tunnel project, said the statement “confirms what the state and its water project partners already knew; while the federal government does not intend to fund the construction costs of the project they will continue working with the state and stakeholders to facilitate and permit Water Fix.”

The initial report had blindsided members of Congress, who questioned why a major policy reversal would have come from media aide instead of from the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency working closely with the state, as an official announcement.

Although Congress has not appropriated money for the project, the Bureau of Reclamation has a stake in the tunnels through its Central Valley Project, and various federal agencies are involved in issuing permits. The Obama administration worked closely with the state to move the project forward, and the Trump administration had appeared to be following suit.

In June, the administration helped clear the way for construction after findings by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service that while the tunnels would harm several endangered fish in the delta, the damage would be offset by an extra 1,800 acres of habitat restoration.

The tunnels are to be financed by the state’s water districts that would benefit from the project. But money has been coming up far short of the $16 billion needed.

Last month, the board of Westlands Water District, the nation’s largest and most powerful farm irrigation district, voted not to pay for its share of the tunnels after concluding that the project is “not financially viable.” A former Westlands lobbyist, David Bernhardt, is now in the number two position at the Interior Department.

Last week, the Santa Clara Valley Water District voted to contribute only a third of the $600 million the state was counting on, saying it would consider one tunnel but not two.

Carolyn Lochhead is the Washington correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she has covered national politics and policy for 22 years. She grew up in Paso Robles (San Luis Obispo County) and graduated from UC Berkeley cum laude in rhetoric and economics. She has a masters of journalism degree from Columbia University.